Letter from the Editor, Spring 2024

Leer en Español

While editing this issue, I was weeks away from delivering my first baby and found myself in a period of intense nesting. As I read each article, the topic of home that was so preoccupying my personal life seemed to resurface again and again. The artists and writers in this issue approach the notion of home through a variety of lenses—for some it is a celebration of community and place; for others, it hosts a complex web of family narratives of displacement; and for many, home is a space filled with foreboding undertones. Across these pages and in each of our lived realities, home is complicated and manifold.

It is impossible, in this moment, to talk about home without acknowledging the tens of thousands of people across the Gaza Strip who have lost their homes, their loved ones, or their own lives. The horrific state-sanctioned genocide of the Palestinian people following the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 must end. “Gaza is now a different color from space. It’s a different texture,” said environmental scientist Cory Scher, after analyzing satellite imagery of the region,¹ trying to put language to the unconscionable level of devastation caused by Israeli bombardment. In this region where half of the inhabitants are children, an immediate ceasefire is the only path forward.

While in no way commensurate with the brutal realities transpiring in Gaza, it has been disturbing to hear of our colleagues in the art field—writers, art workers, and artists alike—who have faced backlash for speaking out in defense of Palestinian life. People have lost jobs, stories cut from publications, and artworks returned to galleries by collectors. Censorship and retaliation within our community set up a dangerous precedent—and make the prospect of commenting publicly on these issues feel vulnerable. When I started this magazine in 2015, it was with the vision that art criticism could be something that resisted top-down singular truths and binary ways of thinking; I wanted the publication to be one that supported writers through the intimate process of articulating thought on complex issues. At Carla, we value the power of critical writing and will continue to nurture a platform that supports and upholds exactly that.

The art world itself is a kind of home—one that houses a diverse array of individuals, perspectives, and aesthetic persuasions, all gathered under the belief that visual communication matters, can provoke change, and has the ability to inspire new ways of thinking. Within this chosen enclave, we all deserve the right to live freely and with integrity, and at Carla, we will do our part to continue to envision an art world that models the principles of equity and inclusivity that we value in the world beyond it.

Lindsay Preston Zappas
Founder & Editor-in-Chief